Mar. 14, 2013

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer and Bloggerville host Jim Schaefer, center, speaks with guests during a gathering for all the people who followed his blog during the Kwame Kilpatrick trial. Photographed at the Anchor Bar in downtown Detroit on Thursday, Mar. 14, 2013. / Jarrad Henderson/Detroit Free Press

Written by

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Friendships leaped from computer screens to real life Thursday when people who followed the Kwame Kilpatrick trial blog of Free Press reporter Jim Schaefer finally met face-to-face.

“It’s amazing. I’ve been talking to these people for six months and have this camaraderie with them,” Dana Swanson, 48, of Howell, said in the packed back room of the Anchor Bar in Detroit.

The Free Press hosted the gathering for devotees of the blog, who collectively refer to themselves as Bloggerville.

Schaefer, who covered the former mayor’s public corruption trial with reporter Tresa Baldas, was the first person from the Free Press to offer daily, gavel-to-gavel trial coverage through a live blog. The blog received from 4,000 to more than 17,000 unique visitors every day. On verdict day, the number jumped to 73,000.

Hundreds of people followed along regularly. An online community of commenters blossomed.

“Jim would explain what the direction the lawyers were going in, why this was an important line of questioning,” Marlene Ciuffoletti, 47, of Canton said. “It made you want to stay along for the ride because even if you were reading something you didn’t understand, you knew Jim was going to elaborate so you could understand it.”

More than 50 people attended. They presented Schaefer, Baldas and Stefanie Murray, assistant managing editor/digital media, with certificates of appreciation and gifts. Attendees divulged their online names, asked questions about the trial and named their favorite witnesses.

“Although I loved all the witnesses, I loved the jury even more,” Carol Clemons, 59, of Detroit said. Laughter erupted.